Editorial: Yes to body cameras for police, and to federal government paying the bill

President Obama is to be commended for asking Congress for $75 million in matching funds to help buy 50,000 body cameras for local police departments.

It's hoped that a large chunk of that money ends up in Connecticut, where more police departments are open to body cameras than they used to be.

Mr. Obama also asked for nearly $190 million for police training because of several high-profile killings of unarmed black males by the police that have sparked demonstrations — mostly peaceful, a few not — nationwide.

This would be money well spent. Congress should not delay in acting on the president's request. Mr. Obama's initiatives are aimed at defusing tensions between minority populations and police departments in too many American communities.

Body cameras are small, body-mounted cameras that record almost everything that happens between police officers and those they encounter. They supply an accurate visual record of an incident in place of often-contested eyewitness accounts.

The officers who forcibly pushed Garner's body into the ground knew a witness...

The failure to indict the New York City police officer whose chokehold killed Eric Garner — captured on video — proves just how ineffective body cameras would be in curbing epidemic police violence and racial profiling.

The officers who forcibly pushed Garner's body into the ground knew a witness...

(JUSTIN HANSFORD)

Just knowing that police are wearing body cameras can modify behavior — by forestalling a criminal act, for example. Wearing the cameras can keep police from using excessive force.

The Wall Street Journal reported that in the first year of body cameras' use by the police force in Rialto, Calif., the use of force by officers declined by 60 percent and citizen complaints against police fell by 88 percent.

Mr. Obama erred, however, in failing to kill a program that transfers military equipment to state and federal law enforcement agencies. Militarizing the police only causes more friction.